Training Tip of the Week

Buy a Heart Rate Monitor

Heart Rate Monitors are a great training tool. Not only do they display your heart rate, but they also accurately display your calories burned during a workout. Many exercise machines display heart rate, however they are often inaccurate and unreliable. Heart rate monitors are accurate, reliable and unique to you. They are also great for exercising outside where it can be harder to gauge how hard you are actually working.

Heart rate monitors start at around $100. A basic heart rate monitor is all that is needed. They will last many years and be one of the best fitness investments you will ever make.

Both heart rate and calorie expenditure can be used to set goals for each session e.g “Im going to burn at least 500 calories before I finish my workout today”, or “I want to get my heart rate above 150 beats per minute for the entire workout”.

Heart rate is the best way to gauge your training intensity. In order to improve fitness and lose weight you should aim to elevate your heart rate to 65 to 90% of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). MHR is calculated by; 220 minus your age, e.g for a thirty year old (220 – 30 = 190 MHR). For steady continuous training aim for a heart rate of around 65 to 75% of your MHR, and for Interval Training do short bursts of higher intensity around 85 to 90% of your MHR.

If you want to lose weight its simple. The higher to get your heart rate, the more calories you burn, the more weight you lose!